I just want to say that I have never read so many sex scenes in a novel before I started taking classes from the English Department. Now, I'M NOT COMPLAINING, but I just find it to be hilarious. The last novel I had to read for a course had a pornographic scene every 50 pages or so - well-described too...

Anyway, The Bug pretty much just reads like a novel. Nothing too outstanding about it, some of the concepts are fairly interesting, but the characters aren't all that likeable and the situations are pretty dry. I'll read some more and see if my impression changes.

I have one major problem with the basic structure:

The woman (Berta?) is supposed to be telling the story as shes having a sort of 'flashback', then the book alternates between her bit of the story and Ethan's bit of the story.

supposedly however, no one, including Berta, knew Ethan that well. Also, Ethan himself is dead as she's recalling the story.

so...either Berta is totally making up Ethan's part of the story from what little she knows about him, or theres just some missing link...

Other than that the book is alright...i felt sorry for Ethan, but most of the other characters didnt really do anything for me either way. The major correlation between the Bug and his downfall didnt really do it for me either.

~jb

just realized i may have ruined the end for some people...oops.
~jb

Just finished the Bug ... there's probably enough hints herein to ruin it for anyone who hasn't finished, so here's the official warning: SPOILERS AHEAD

Initial thoughts: Didn't like the pacing. I understand that it was necessary for the ultimate outcome, but 'finding out' what was really going on at the end didn't justify the pacing enough for me.

The flipflopping between points-of-view did get on my nerves a bit - it worked, but it felt clumsy. Jennah said something similar - my problem was in that we were getting the story from Ethan's point of view, but he died. It's a clever idea to kill one of your narrators, but something about it didn't sit so well with me.

Liked the end a lot. Was particularly fascinated with how Ethan's own Game of Life turned out. Also thought that the technical reasons for the bug acting the way it did were very clever - I wish the author had delved into that a bit more, instead of the sort of cursory explanation we got at the end.

My biggest problem was probably the flatness of the situations and characters. Even though we got the story from the narrator, I never felt like I was close to the story - I felt like I was an observer watching from the safety of my bubble.

Anyway, s'just what I think. Am curious to see how others like it.

i liked the pacing of the story... to be more specific, during ethan's scenes, i felt like everything was going by so fast that i would get a headache - i think this is a nice echo of how ethan's mind worked. i'm upset that he killed himself and that others at the office joked that it was because of some sexual mis-adventure... it seems to me a degrading end to a man who worked so freaking hard he lost everything else in his life. throughout the story i wanted ethan to just throw away the work and move to some island where he could work on his X and O colony. that's too much stress for one little man -- i guess i feel that way about most computer programmers. there's so much attention to the details of the inner workings, that i wonder if the final product is ever good enough, or id they even SEE the final product (the forest and the tress metaphore would work well here).
i didn't really like the way the many side stories were just left dangling... what ever happened between Ute and Ethan after the sex? what happened to the girlfriend and the clove man? what happened with the neighbors (both the baby and the loud ones). erm, i've probably rambled on enough now... indeed.

Jennah, I pretty much agree with you. I can't figure out who the second narrator is and why Berta's flashback is significant to the story.

Also, I feel that Ethan's problems are the result of an underlying mental illness, rather than a direct result of the bug. The bug may have exacerbated his problem, but that's as much of a correlation as I would be willing to make.

And I didn't like any of the characters either.

The philosophical aspects regarding computers and the transformation from the physical to to abstract was about the only part that really reached me. It did, however, reach me enough to read some of it aloud to my boyfriend.

Yes, what is Berta's significance to the story? I really feel this book could have delivered its message in less than 350 pages. This book does a good job in portraying how Ethan’s life changed around him while trying to find the cause of UI-1017. Poor Ethan. I wonder what he would do to Thorne, if he could come back to life.

I actually finished the book a few weeks ago and I have to say that it was the first one that I didn't mind reading in a long time. I'm more of a graphic novel kind of person (it stimulates both sides of the brain:-). I thought that the actual bug that Ethan was trying to fix was pretty cool. How on earth is a person who isn't familiar with graphic interfaces supposed to figure out THAT one?

I thought tha the authors ability to write the same thing over and over in a different way was an excellent display of talenteven though it did feel repetitive (not that it didn't work for the story). She also did a great job of writing from the perspective of someone who is self-centered and wallows in self-pity. Yes, you felt kind of sorry for Ethan but as the story progressed you started to see signs that there was more to Ethan's situation than he was willing to examine. Ex: The home was completely furnished by Joanna - SHE was making all of the effort to build their home/relationship. I thought that most of the other characters appeared flat because that was how Ethan saw them.

I did have a problem with the abundance of similarities between Ethan and the narrator's lives. It felt like the author might have been dwelling a bit too much on something that may have happened in her own life.

Hi,
The book "the bug" which i read over spring break, was not the best read for the following reason, the authors' strategy was what i like to call cheesy with the little stunt that she pulled at the begining of the book. She choose to tell the reader something to the accord of i think i saw Ethan Ulrich in the airport.. and then you find out later in the book that this is not at all possible, i liked the book up until this point to some degree, then i lost all respect for the author for pulling such a lame trick on the reader. Other then that i really loved how she related computer science to the real world and the use of the living organsims to express life. I found that this technic of relating things was her strongest point, she could have made the whole book that way without mentioning there love lives and it would have been splendid. Although i do understand why she had to include exerpts about there love lives. As it was the underlining factor to there borderline insanity and self distruction. It also added an element of gossip that i don't like to admit but i do enjoy everyonce in a while. I also enjoyed the authors description of events not completly waisting the readers time with usless information but filling the void of what could have been dull text. As for my over all view of the book i would have regarded it more highly if she didn't pull that stupid trick on the reader. As a writer she has an endless amount of possibilities and tools that she can use to fool the reader. I found that trick to the accord of introducing aliens in a text when there are so many more creative ways out. She obviously has the skill to do it, as the rest of the book was good, but she choose not to and that really disturbs me as a piddly student.

Hi,
The book "the bug" which i read over spring break, was not the best read for the following reason, the authors' strategy was what i like to call cheesy with the little stunt that she pulled at the begining of the book. She choose to tell the reader something to the accord of i think i saw Ethan Ulrich in the airport.. and then you find out later in the book that this is not at all possible, i liked the book up until this point to some degree, then i lost all respect for the author for pulling such a lame trick on the reader. Other then that i really loved how she related computer science to the real world and the use of the living organsims to express life. I found that this technic of relating things was her strongest point, she could have made the whole book that way without mentioning there love lives and it would have been splendid. Although i do understand why she had to include exerpts about there love lives. As it was the underlining factor to there borderline insanity and self distruction. It also added an element of gossip that i don't like to admit but i do enjoy everyonce in a while. I also enjoyed the authors description of events not completly waisting the readers time with usless information but filling the void of what could have been dull text. As for my over all view of the book i would have regarded it more highly if she didn't pull that stupid trick on the reader. As a writer she has an endless amount of possibilities and tools that she can use to fool the reader. I found that trick to the accord of introducing aliens in a text when there are so many more creative ways out. She obviously has the skill to do it, as the rest of the book was good, but she choose not to and that really disturbs me as a piddly student.

Hi,
The book "the bug" which i read over spring break, was not the best read for the following reason, the authors' strategy was what i like to call cheesy with the little stunt that she pulled at the begining of the book. She choose to tell the reader something to the accord of i think i saw Ethan Ulrich in the airport.. and then you find out later in the book that this is not at all possible, i liked the book up until this point to some degree, then i lost all respect for the author for pulling such a lame trick on the reader. Other then that i really loved how she related computer science to the real world and the use of the living organsims to express life. I found that this technic of relating things was her strongest point, she could have made the whole book that way without mentioning there love lives and it would have been splendid. Although i do understand why she had to include exerpts about there love lives. As it was the underlining factor to there borderline insanity and self distruction. It also added an element of gossip that i don't like to admit but i do enjoy everyonce in a while. I also enjoyed the authors description of events not completly waisting the readers time with usless information but filling the void of what could have been dull text. As for my over all view of the book i would have regarded it more highly if she didn't pull that stupid trick on the reader. As a writer she has an endless amount of possibilities and tools that she can use to fool the reader. I found that trick to the accord of introducing aliens in a text when there are so many more creative ways out. She obviously has the skill to do it, as the rest of the book was good, but she choose not to and that really disturbs me as a piddly student.

Hi,
The book "the bug" which i read over spring break, was not the best read for the following reason, the authors' strategy was what i like to call cheesy with the little stunt that she pulled at the begining of the book. She choose to tell the reader something to the accord of i think i saw Ethan Ulrich in the airport.. and then you find out later in the book that this is not at all possible, i liked the book up until this point to some degree, then i lost all respect for the author for pulling such a lame trick on the reader. Other then that i really loved how she related computer science to the real world and the use of the living organsims to express life. I found that this technic of relating things was her strongest point, she could have made the whole book that way without mentioning there love lives and it would have been splendid. Although i do understand why she had to include exerpts about there love lives. As it was the underlining factor to there borderline insanity and self distruction. It also added an element of gossip that i don't like to admit but i do enjoy everyonce in a while. I also enjoyed the authors description of events not completly waisting the readers time with usless information but filling the void of what could have been dull text. As for my over all view of the book i would have regarded it more highly if she didn't pull that stupid trick on the reader. As a writer she has an endless amount of possibilities and tools that she can use to fool the reader. I found that trick to the accord of introducing aliens in a text when there are so many more creative ways out. She obviously has the skill to do it, as the rest of the book was good, but she choose not to and that really disturbs me as a piddly student.

Hi,
The book "the bug" which i read over spring break, was not the best read for the following reason, the authors' strategy was what i like to call cheesy with the little stunt that she pulled at the begining of the book. She choose to tell the reader something to the accord of i think i saw Ethan Ulrich in the airport.. and then you find out later in the book that this is not at all possible, i liked the book up until this point to some degree, then i lost all respect for the author for pulling such a lame trick on the reader. Other then that i really loved how she related computer science to the real world and the use of the living organsims to express life. I found that this technic of relating things was her strongest point, she could have made the whole book that way without mentioning there love lives and it would have been splendid. Although i do understand why she had to include exerpts about there love lives. As it was the underlining factor to there borderline insanity and self distruction. It also added an element of gossip that i don't like to admit but i do enjoy everyonce in a while. I also enjoyed the authors description of events not completly waisting the readers time with usless information but filling the void of what could have been dull text. As for my over all view of the book i would have regarded it more highly if she didn't pull that stupid trick on the reader. As a writer she has an endless amount of possibilities and tools that she can use to fool the reader. I found that trick to the accord of introducing aliens in a text when there are so many more creative ways out. She obviously has the skill to do it, as the rest of the book was good, but she choose not to and that really disturbs me as a piddly student.

After finishing the Bug, I felt rather unsatisfied. I liked the book while reading, I actually read the whole thing in 2-3 days over break. I enjoyed the author's technical knowledge, I especially appreciated the usage of real names and books which are familiar to some of us programming dorks :). I also had a few chuckles for descriptions of programmer's mannerisms and quirkiness.

I think the reason that I was unfufilled was do to my high interest in the book's technical aspects, but by the end I didn't feel like I had gotten anything out of it other than the entertainment while reading. I agree with several above posts about the eloquent excerpts the author had about abstracting technology to life, but I wish this tied in with the book more overall. Maybe I missed more of these connections and failed to pickup the underlying themes, but if I did miss these, I would blame some of the random extras thrown in (sex, narrator switches, etc).

I feel the book would have worked better without adding the 'drama' of Ethan's degeneration. Most of the book, I can say from experience (brief though it is) working in the field and knowing about the history of computers, could very well be based on a true story. Sticking WITH a true story, perhaps with 'names changed to protect the innocent', I think would have made a better book; then you can concentrate on the parts of the book most people appear to have found most interesting, anyway.